2025 Spring Super Stack – Event #1: $340 Seniors NLH

The Seniors game is over now after the final two players decided on an even chop of the remaining money. Both players agreed to $10,602 in prizes with “Handsome” Russ King taking the official win with the biggest stack and Gary Hellard taking second place tonight.

Blain Thompson quickly followed Stephen Scott out the door. I missed the action but Thompson took 3rd for $6,163.

Stephen Scott shoved 130k under the gun and Russ King called from the button before Gary Heller shoved the covering stack from the small blind.

King got out of the way and Scott was dominated with king-ten into the big slick in spades. The 4♠10♥9♠2♠4♣ favoured Scott on the flop, but then flushed him out on the turn.

I missed the final action while writing the previous bust, but Kirk Miller was out in 5th place tonight. He was playing a short stack for the whole final table, but did manage to find a recent triple when he was forced all in blind from the big blind and found a spade flush to survive.

Ali Seyed found two pair with his queen-seven, but that wasn’t good enough against the flush for Stephen Scott.

Kirk Miller was forced all in from the big blind and Russ King and Ali Seyed limped to action on the side. They both checked through the 2♠8♠3♠4♠10♣ but Miller, who hadn’t looked at his hand yet, rolled over J♠7♠ for the flush and the triple up to about 100k.

It was a double knockout when Russ Sluchinski got it in with pocket aces, but neither he, nor the pocket sixes for Jeff Eldred, were able to defeat the hot running “Handsome” Russ King, who found a set of sevens to send them both to the cage in the same hand.

I missed the action while writing the previous hand, but Colin McNeil was the 9th place finisher tonight to bring the game down to 8 Seniors left.

Chris Ruddell just hit the rail in 10th place after he shoved with ace-jack but ran into pocket jacks for Russ King. The jacks held to send Ruddell out in 10th place.

“Handsome” Russ King raised the hijack to 60k, then snap-called when Stephen O’Bertos shoved his big blind with less. O’Bertos was in trouble with pocket tens against pocket queens, and it just got worse when King turned the queen on a board of 5♥K♠5♦Q♦5♣.

Gary Heller is the leader going into Level 21 as the only stack over 1 million. “Handsome” Russ King is second with just shy of 900k. See below for the remaining players and stacks as they approach the 10-handed final table.

There are less than 5 minutes remaining Level 20 with a break scheduled following this level. The field is now down to 11 left with the final table set at 10. See below for a look at all the cashers so far tonight.

Place	Player	Prize
12	Michael Jacobs	$986
13	Malcolm Buller	$887
14	Brian Fujimoto	$838
15	Don Fujita	$789
16	Terence Anton	$740
17	Debi Loomer	$690

They are down to 13 left now with just under 20 minutes to play in Level 20. Don Fujita and Brian Fujimoto were the most recent busts with full prize details under the Payouts tab.

They’ll take another break after this level.

They are down to 15 left in the Seniors game with about 5 minutes to play in Level 19. Full prize details are under the payouts tab, but Debi Loomer took the min-cash tonight while Terence Anton was 16th place.

Russ King looks to be leading the way right now with more than 700k in front of him while Gary Heller looks to be playing abotu 500k right now.

They are now in the money after hand for hand lasted for half of Level 18. Jim Berry shoved early with pocket threes and had to race against ace-king. The 10♥10♦8♥4♠8♣ counterfeited the treys, and Berry hit the rail in 18th place on the bubble.

It was a blind on blind pot when Mike Jacobs limped and Jim Berry called. Jacobs bet 15k on the 7♥3♥5♦ flop, but mucked his and when Berry pumped it up to 55k.

At the break following Level 16 I grabbed a full look at the chips. There have been a couple of busts since I grabbed this list with the field now down to 20, but this is what it looked like after the break.

I’ve had a bit of a brain fart today and have been reporting the prizes wrong. There are only 17 paid spots so we are one further away from the money than my previous updates have claimed.

There are now about 5 minutes remaining in Level 16, so it’s looking like the bubble play will come in Level 17 after the break following this level. Bubble play begins after four more eliminations.

The Seniors are just 7 players off the money now with 25 players remaining at the final three tables tonight. Level 16 has about 20 minutes remaining, so it still looks like a good bet for the bubble to happen near the end of this level or the start of Level 17.

Level 16 has just begun, with the field down to 28 players left. That puts them 10 away from the money spots with hand-for-hand action set to start when they lose 9 more players. It looks like they could go hand-for-hand before the end of this level, though it might be at the start of Level 17.

They are now just 13 players off the money spots with 31 players left in the game. There are 20 minutes left to play in Level 15 so it’s looking like the bubble could come before they go on their next break at the end of Level 16.

The field is down to 38 remaining now with about 10 minutes to play in Level 14. That leaves them 20 players away from the money spots with 18th place set to get the first payout tonight at $690. It’s looking like the bubble will come sometime around the end of Level 16 or start of Level 17, but there’s still lots of poker to play until then.

Gary Heller is leading the way on the dinner break with about 200k in front of him. Below is a look at the big stacks I saw on the dinner break.

After a raise to 6k from the hijack, the player on the button shoved a small stack. Rob Lupton was in the big blind and reshoved for about 55k.

That pushed out the original raiser and Lupton’s pocket sixes were in good shape against ace-deuce. It got even better for the pair when it flopped a set on the board of 6♣J♣4♥7♥9♦ and held for the win. The hand put Lupton up to about 80k.

The players are now less than 5 minutes away from the dinner break and I’ll have another look around the room for big stacks while they are on dinner, with an update after they return for Level 13 at about 6:15 pm.

Brad Davis opened for a limp from the middle and he was called by the button before small blind Bill Thomson shoved his stack. Cliff Green folded the big blind, and two more folds followed to send the uncontested pot to Thomson preflop.

Level 12 is just beginning and the field is now down to 63 players left. They’ve just broken down to 7 full tables with just under 30 minutes to play until the dinner break.

Cliff Green opened under the gun to 5,500 and action folded around the table to Bill Thomson in the big blind. He tossed out a call to see 10♣Q♥9♣ on the flop. They both checked it to the 5♣ turn where Thomson check-folded to a bet of 5k from Green.

Green is playing about 35k now while Thomson is sitting on about 80k.

Level 11 is just beginning with 72 players left in the game now. There are two more levels of poker before the dinner break following Level 12 and it looks like they’ll still be some distance from the money when they break for dinner.

The prizes are posted and the field is confirmed at 173 entries. There are 17 paid spots tonight with the winner set to pocket more than $12.5k. See below for the full payouts and watch the Payouts tab later tonight for the cashing players.

Here is a look at the remaining field in the Seniors event shortly after late registration ended. They will now be racing down to 17 or 18 players (look for confirmation of exact numbers when the prizes are posted shortly) with a scheduled dinner break (45 minutes) upcoming after Level 12.

I had a look around at the break for some big stacks and there are five players with 100k+ already. Max Fernandez leads the way with 136k with Eddie Guilbault close behind at ~125k. See below for the 100k club at break.

Entries for the Seniors are now closed with the final unofficial tally at 173. If that number holds, it will mean that 17 (or possibly 18) players will share in $49,305 in prizes later tonight.

There are about 25 minutes left to get into the Seniors game and the field is now at 166, just 10 entries away from cracking the $50k mark. Level 8 has about 10 minutes remaining with the second 15-minute break to follow and entries will be closed when they come back for Level 9. The 45-minute dinner break will take place after Level 12.

The field is now 12 entries away from $50k with the final level of entry now underway. The field is now at 164 entries for prizes of $46,740 and a field of 176 will push the prizes above the $50k mark.

There are just over 20 minutes to play in Level 8 now, so the end of entries is just over 30 minutes away.

The prize pool just ticked over $45k with 158 entries now on the board. There are still 115 players left alive in the game and about 45 minutes left to enter. Currently the average stack is just shy of 35k or a bit more than 40 big blinds.

Suzie Markoff open-limped under the gun, and five players called including Debi Loomer in the big blind. The 9♦K♣K♦ flop checked around to the K♥ turn and after a check from small blind John Foley, Loomer fired 1,000 into the pot.

Action folded around to Foley who showed a jack. “Can you beat that?” he asked as he mucked his hand. Loomer said yes, showing A♥ as she collected the pot.

Level 6 is about halfway finished now with 144 entries on the board. That puts the prizes at just over $41k and climbing. Entries are still open for about 90 minutes, so 150+ looks like a lock and the final number could push toward 175.

If they make it to 176 entries, that would mean a prize pool of more than $50k with $45k just 14 entries away from the current total.

The prizes are just shy of $40k with 140 entries on the board and about 5 minutes to play in Level 5. There are still 111 players left at the felt.

The players are less than 5 minutes away from the start of Level 5 with 125 entries on the board. That puts the prizes at more than $35k with a bit more than two hours left to get into it.

Among the recent entries I spotted was 2023 Salute to Warriors runner-up Kelly Gall, along with Gerry Edwards, Debi Loomer, Bill Thomson, and Allison and John Senycz.

They are one entry away from $35k in prizes with under 10 minutes to play in Level 4. They’ll take their first break of the day at the end of this level then return for four more levels of poker with entries still open. There is another 15-minute break following Level 8 and entries will be closed when they sit down for Level 9 at about 3:30 pm.

Debi Loomer and Bill Thomson were among the players I saw jump in since the last update.

There are about 10 minutes to play in Level 3 with the field now at 105 entries for prizes just shy of $30k. Among the recent entries I spotted in the field are John Foley, Rob Bridger, Peggy Sue Mailinowski, and John Hansmeyer.

Level 3 is just beginning with 100 entries on board. It still says there are 100 players left as well, but I’ve seen a few players head to the rebuy desk already today, so that number is likely incorrect. Entries are still open for 3.5 hours until about 3:30 pm.

It’s a good start to the series with almost 100 Seniors in thei seats and just under 10 minutes gone in Level 2. Entries are open for about 4 hours with the desk set to shut down at about 3:30 pm this afternoon.

Among the players in their seats for this one are Reg Hampton, Cliff Green, multiple seniors ring winner David Labchuk, last Aug ring winner Scott Calvank, Treena Angelski, Don McCall, Suzie Markoff, Fred Balic, Russ Sluchinski, Trevor Simpson, Allan Hobbins, and Don Fujita.

The opening game in the Spring Super Stack is set to roll on Wednesday at 11 am. The 50+ crowd will be assembling around the tables for the Seniors game.

Entries for the Seniors will be open until the start of Level 9, which should be at about 3:30 PM. After that, it’s a race to win with 25k to start and 30-minute levels throughout the game.

This game should be my focus on Wednesday. There is an open game starting at 6 pm ($230 Turbo), so there is poker to play for all on Day 1, but I expect this seniors game will occupy most of my attention on Wednesday.

The Seniors game is over now after the final two players decided on an even chop of the remaining money. Both players agreed to $10,602 in prizes with “Handsome” Russ King taking the official win with the biggest stack and Gary Hellard taking second place tonight.

Blain Thompson quickly followed Stephen Scott out the door. I missed the action but Thompson took 3rd for $6,163.

Stephen Scott shoved 130k under the gun and Russ King called from the button before Gary Heller shoved the covering stack from the small blind.

King got out of the way and Scott was dominated with king-ten into the big slick in spades. The 4♠10♥9♠2♠4♣ favoured Scott on the flop, but then flushed him out on the turn.

I missed the final action while writing the previous bust, but Kirk Miller was out in 5th place tonight. He was playing a short stack for the whole final table, but did manage to find a recent triple when he was forced all in blind from the big blind and found a spade flush to survive.

Ali Seyed found two pair with his queen-seven, but that wasn’t good enough against the flush for Stephen Scott.

Kirk Miller was forced all in from the big blind and Russ King and Ali Seyed limped to action on the side. They both checked through the 2♠8♠3♠4♠10♣ but Miller, who hadn’t looked at his hand yet, rolled over J♠7♠ for the flush and the triple up to about 100k.

It was a double knockout when Russ Sluchinski got it in with pocket aces, but neither he, nor the pocket sixes for Jeff Eldred, were able to defeat the hot running “Handsome” Russ King, who found a set of sevens to send them both to the cage in the same hand.

I missed the action while writing the previous hand, but Colin McNeil was the 9th place finisher tonight to bring the game down to 8 Seniors left.

Chris Ruddell just hit the rail in 10th place after he shoved with ace-jack but ran into pocket jacks for Russ King. The jacks held to send Ruddell out in 10th place.

“Handsome” Russ King raised the hijack to 60k, then snap-called when Stephen O’Bertos shoved his big blind with less. O’Bertos was in trouble with pocket tens against pocket queens, and it just got worse when King turned the queen on a board of 5♥K♠5♦Q♦5♣.

Gary Heller is the leader going into Level 21 as the only stack over 1 million. “Handsome” Russ King is second with just shy of 900k. See below for the remaining players and stacks as they approach the 10-handed final table.

There are less than 5 minutes remaining Level 20 with a break scheduled following this level. The field is now down to 11 left with the final table set at 10. See below for a look at all the cashers so far tonight.

Place	Player	Prize
12	Michael Jacobs	$986
13	Malcolm Buller	$887
14	Brian Fujimoto	$838
15	Don Fujita	$789
16	Terence Anton	$740
17	Debi Loomer	$690

They are down to 13 left now with just under 20 minutes to play in Level 20. Don Fujita and Brian Fujimoto were the most recent busts with full prize details under the Payouts tab.

They’ll take another break after this level.

They are down to 15 left in the Seniors game with about 5 minutes to play in Level 19. Full prize details are under the payouts tab, but Debi Loomer took the min-cash tonight while Terence Anton was 16th place.

Russ King looks to be leading the way right now with more than 700k in front of him while Gary Heller looks to be playing abotu 500k right now.

They are now in the money after hand for hand lasted for half of Level 18. Jim Berry shoved early with pocket threes and had to race against ace-king. The 10♥10♦8♥4♠8♣ counterfeited the treys, and Berry hit the rail in 18th place on the bubble.

It was a blind on blind pot when Mike Jacobs limped and Jim Berry called. Jacobs bet 15k on the 7♥3♥5♦ flop, but mucked his and when Berry pumped it up to 55k.

At the break following Level 16 I grabbed a full look at the chips. There have been a couple of busts since I grabbed this list with the field now down to 20, but this is what it looked like after the break.

I’ve had a bit of a brain fart today and have been reporting the prizes wrong. There are only 17 paid spots so we are one further away from the money than my previous updates have claimed.

There are now about 5 minutes remaining in Level 16, so it’s looking like the bubble play will come in Level 17 after the break following this level. Bubble play begins after four more eliminations.

The Seniors are just 7 players off the money now with 25 players remaining at the final three tables tonight. Level 16 has about 20 minutes remaining, so it still looks like a good bet for the bubble to happen near the end of this level or the start of Level 17.

Level 16 has just begun, with the field down to 28 players left. That puts them 10 away from the money spots with hand-for-hand action set to start when they lose 9 more players. It looks like they could go hand-for-hand before the end of this level, though it might be at the start of Level 17.

They are now just 13 players off the money spots with 31 players left in the game. There are 20 minutes left to play in Level 15 so it’s looking like the bubble could come before they go on their next break at the end of Level 16.

The field is down to 38 remaining now with about 10 minutes to play in Level 14. That leaves them 20 players away from the money spots with 18th place set to get the first payout tonight at $690. It’s looking like the bubble will come sometime around the end of Level 16 or start of Level 17, but there’s still lots of poker to play until then.

Gary Heller is leading the way on the dinner break with about 200k in front of him. Below is a look at the big stacks I saw on the dinner break.

After a raise to 6k from the hijack, the player on the button shoved a small stack. Rob Lupton was in the big blind and reshoved for about 55k.

That pushed out the original raiser and Lupton’s pocket sixes were in good shape against ace-deuce. It got even better for the pair when it flopped a set on the board of 6♣J♣4♥7♥9♦ and held for the win. The hand put Lupton up to about 80k.

The players are now less than 5 minutes away from the dinner break and I’ll have another look around the room for big stacks while they are on dinner, with an update after they return for Level 13 at about 6:15 pm.

Brad Davis opened for a limp from the middle and he was called by the button before small blind Bill Thomson shoved his stack. Cliff Green folded the big blind, and two more folds followed to send the uncontested pot to Thomson preflop.

Level 12 is just beginning and the field is now down to 63 players left. They’ve just broken down to 7 full tables with just under 30 minutes to play until the dinner break.

Cliff Green opened under the gun to 5,500 and action folded around the table to Bill Thomson in the big blind. He tossed out a call to see 10♣Q♥9♣ on the flop. They both checked it to the 5♣ turn where Thomson check-folded to a bet of 5k from Green.

Green is playing about 35k now while Thomson is sitting on about 80k.

Level 11 is just beginning with 72 players left in the game now. There are two more levels of poker before the dinner break following Level 12 and it looks like they’ll still be some distance from the money when they break for dinner.

The prizes are posted and the field is confirmed at 173 entries. There are 17 paid spots tonight with the winner set to pocket more than $12.5k. See below for the full payouts and watch the Payouts tab later tonight for the cashing players.

Here is a look at the remaining field in the Seniors event shortly after late registration ended. They will now be racing down to 17 or 18 players (look for confirmation of exact numbers when the prizes are posted shortly) with a scheduled dinner break (45 minutes) upcoming after Level 12.

I had a look around at the break for some big stacks and there are five players with 100k+ already. Max Fernandez leads the way with 136k with Eddie Guilbault close behind at ~125k. See below for the 100k club at break.

Entries for the Seniors are now closed with the final unofficial tally at 173. If that number holds, it will mean that 17 (or possibly 18) players will share in $49,305 in prizes later tonight.

There are about 25 minutes left to get into the Seniors game and the field is now at 166, just 10 entries away from cracking the $50k mark. Level 8 has about 10 minutes remaining with the second 15-minute break to follow and entries will be closed when they come back for Level 9. The 45-minute dinner break will take place after Level 12.

The field is now 12 entries away from $50k with the final level of entry now underway. The field is now at 164 entries for prizes of $46,740 and a field of 176 will push the prizes above the $50k mark.

There are just over 20 minutes to play in Level 8 now, so the end of entries is just over 30 minutes away.

The prize pool just ticked over $45k with 158 entries now on the board. There are still 115 players left alive in the game and about 45 minutes left to enter. Currently the average stack is just shy of 35k or a bit more than 40 big blinds.

Suzie Markoff open-limped under the gun, and five players called including Debi Loomer in the big blind. The 9♦K♣K♦ flop checked around to the K♥ turn and after a check from small blind John Foley, Loomer fired 1,000 into the pot.

Action folded around to Foley who showed a jack. “Can you beat that?” he asked as he mucked his hand. Loomer said yes, showing A♥ as she collected the pot.

Level 6 is about halfway finished now with 144 entries on the board. That puts the prizes at just over $41k and climbing. Entries are still open for about 90 minutes, so 150+ looks like a lock and the final number could push toward 175.

If they make it to 176 entries, that would mean a prize pool of more than $50k with $45k just 14 entries away from the current total.

The prizes are just shy of $40k with 140 entries on the board and about 5 minutes to play in Level 5. There are still 111 players left at the felt.

The players are less than 5 minutes away from the start of Level 5 with 125 entries on the board. That puts the prizes at more than $35k with a bit more than two hours left to get into it.

Among the recent entries I spotted was 2023 Salute to Warriors runner-up Kelly Gall, along with Gerry Edwards, Debi Loomer, Bill Thomson, and Allison and John Senycz.

They are one entry away from $35k in prizes with under 10 minutes to play in Level 4. They’ll take their first break of the day at the end of this level then return for four more levels of poker with entries still open. There is another 15-minute break following Level 8 and entries will be closed when they sit down for Level 9 at about 3:30 pm.

Debi Loomer and Bill Thomson were among the players I saw jump in since the last update.

There are about 10 minutes to play in Level 3 with the field now at 105 entries for prizes just shy of $30k. Among the recent entries I spotted in the field are John Foley, Rob Bridger, Peggy Sue Mailinowski, and John Hansmeyer.

Level 3 is just beginning with 100 entries on board. It still says there are 100 players left as well, but I’ve seen a few players head to the rebuy desk already today, so that number is likely incorrect. Entries are still open for 3.5 hours until about 3:30 pm.

It’s a good start to the series with almost 100 Seniors in thei seats and just under 10 minutes gone in Level 2. Entries are open for about 4 hours with the desk set to shut down at about 3:30 pm this afternoon.

Among the players in their seats for this one are Reg Hampton, Cliff Green, multiple seniors ring winner David Labchuk, last Aug ring winner Scott Calvank, Treena Angelski, Don McCall, Suzie Markoff, Fred Balic, Russ Sluchinski, Trevor Simpson, Allan Hobbins, and Don Fujita.

The opening game in the Spring Super Stack is set to roll on Wednesday at 11 am. The 50+ crowd will be assembling around the tables for the Seniors game.

Entries for the Seniors will be open until the start of Level 9, which should be at about 3:30 PM. After that, it’s a race to win with 25k to start and 30-minute levels throughout the game.

This game should be my focus on Wednesday. There is an open game starting at 6 pm ($230 Turbo), so there is poker to play for all on Day 1, but I expect this seniors game will occupy most of my attention on Wednesday.